Riftmages of Phylos

Riftmages are born

When the party gets back to Gavren, he is solemn and concerned. He explains that he has sealed the Nexus to buy them some time while the apprentices complete their training. Gavren has sent word to the other two masters about the occurrence. Master Lev of Aclia has taken his eldest apprentice into the void to search for Laerthamun, while the Master of Oslo University has not responded. To make sure nothing has gone wrong, Darius is sent to investigate the matter.

Lev’s youngest student who had not yet learned the true art of the riftmage, Agvend, joins the party.

First, the students are told to meditate so they can commune with the spirits inside their Athames. Once they make contact, Gavren instructs them on feeling out the weaknesses in the veil so they can cut rifts and teaches them the Detect Veil spell.

Detect Veil (Level 0)

Lets the caster know the strength of the void in the current surroundings. Once cast, the riftmage can attempt an attack roll with his athame. He must beat the DC to open a rift. Only one attempt can be made every 24 hours in that specific area.

Gavren procures a sphere with a contained demivoid. It has been constructed to train riftmages. After being sent inside, they wake up in a hazy maze in the middle of a swamp like region. While navigating the maze, the group fights the spirits inside their Athames and ultimately gains the trust of the creatures. After escaping, they see the mansion nearby.

Inside, the Dreamfolk inhabitant greets them and tells them they must participate in a scavenger hunt before they will be shown the exit. Mira and Verthian follow the clues while the angry Agvend tries to pester the Dreamfolk. After some time of searching and thinking, the master of the manor reveals the gate. Verthian opens the gate and they return home.

A plot revealed

Finally making it to Shiragrad, the PCs remember to seek council with Queen Sorami. She is distraught at the notion that her most trusted adviser would do anything so horrible, especially to a friend as close as Gavren. Still, she wants the apprentices to find Laerthamun and straighten things out.

A guard is sent with them to accompany the group through secure parts of the city, like the Shiragrad University. Inside, the students report not having seen the professor of conjuration for a number of days. One of the other professors claims that he has gone up to the temple of Bolmar.

They find that the path up the mountain is blocked due to a supernaturally strong blizzard. The barrier keeping it at bay is also keeping them out. However, the guard suggests asking the princess who is known to travel past the barrier. Princess Miko is eager to get out of the castle and takes them to the barrier. She instructs to break it using fire magic.

After fighting the elementals bound in the barrier, Miko shows them why she has been placed under house arrest by her mother. She is a lycanthrope with a tendency towards roaming and rebellion. Miko is going crazy not knowing how her pack is doing so she asks if the riftmages will check in on the lycanthropes when they have a chance.

On their way up the mountain, Brasken and Eryss attack them once more. Verthian is bloodthirsty as always, and for once Darius doesn’t disagree. Brasken is killed and Eryss only barely managed to feather fall down the mountain.

Up ahead, in the temple, Laerthamun talks with the party about his plans. He wants to unleash a controlled rift upon Phylos to unleash just the amount of prime energy to transform the inhabitants into Proteans. In his opinion, that is the only way for him to defend against the coming storm. Laerthamun says that Gavren has predicted a force of chaos coming from beyond the stars to bring calamity to the land. The Riftmage Master also invites Verthian to join his new world order. After quite a long discussion, Verthian decides to stick with his current allies.

The PCs attack Laerthamun, who brings forth his eidolon from the void. When the battle got heated, Laerthamun wielded his Athame and escaped to the void.

Retrieve the stolen Athames!

When the party gets to Corovo, city of thieves, they stop and rest before moving on to Shiragrad. Darius takes extra precautions to make sure the party is safe from thieves in the night. His vigilance saves his own Athame from theft, but Mira and Verthian are not so lucky.

After questioning many people all around the city and bribing the guard to help them with information, they learn that the prominent thieves in the city are the Black Feathers, an all Aclian gang. They all wear black cloaks with a holy symbol of Jorra. Clues point back towards the inn they came from when they hear that the gang has an agreement with some innkeepers to let them steal from their guests.

Back at the inn, the scared innkeeper cooperates completely. He tells the party that he is going to meet with one of the gang to get his cut of the profits and agrees to let them ambush the Aclian thief.

A chase ensues, but Mira and Darius are both adept in sorcerous speed so he is caught. When the fighting starts, the Aclian Comet calls for the hired muscle of the gang to come and help. It’s a little too late, and in any case the muscle, Hugo, and his axebeak mount are executed. Comet is questioned and manages to escape while the group discusses plans.

Through further investigation they learn that the gang uses eagles to send messages to one another. Following the eagles leads to an aerie where a lone trainer, Gale is tending to the birds. When she tries to defend herself, Darius executes her as well. Another contact of the guild enters the building and freely divulges information to the group, saying that the leader Serge is a priest in the area of the city by the Duchess’ manor.

While the group is out searching for this place, Serge shoots an arrow with a message asking the party to leave it alone and turn back before any more blood is shed. This only infuriates the frustrated riftmages more. When they get to the temple, Sophia and Niko attack them. It is a challenging fight and Mira is downed by Niko, but is left alive by order of their leader.

Once the battle was won, Serge gives up the athames to the apprentices seeing how important they are to them.

Mystery of the Temple's Inner Sanctum

Questioning the High Priest at the temple in the previous session hinted at what was to come — Gavren planned for his students to take the trial of Viddal. They quickly find that lightning elementals are quite common inside the temple and they fight their way through the myriad of puzzles.

Mira was able to power the ancient machine using her shocking grasp to activate the elevator, as well as retrieve the elevator key from the electric eel pool using a mage hand spell.

On the upper level of the temple, they meet the predecessor to the High Priest who still exists as a soulbound doll. He explains that when a High Priest to the temple dies, they are bound in such a form to guard the temple until the next priest takes their place. He challenges the group to combat before he allows them intermediate travel to Levinspire. Sadly, such a limited form was no match for the group and Darius grappled the poor priest.

After the battle was over, the High Priest activated runes on the dome ceiling that shifted everyone’s consciousness to Levinspire. There they met an aspect of Viddal who was glad to share some of his knowledge with his faithful. They learned a little bit of Laerthamun’s plans and bestowed upon Mira a headband of intelligence before Viddal sent them on their way.

Prove Gavren's Innocence!

This session begins with Darius, Mira, and Verthian all receiving messages being told to meet Gavren at the temple. When they get there, instead there are two minor demons inside, who they quickly dispatch. In attempts to make meaning of this, they search for Gavren.

The Master’s office yields a clue. A letter written in the language of demons hinting at some sort of agreement between the master and the writer. It spoke of offering the riftmage apprentices for the soul of Gavren’s departed love.

Still trying to find Gavren, the PCs go to his quarters and find him under the effects of a sleep spell. As they try to leave to make sense of this mess, guards stop them and arrest Gavren. Professor Fenix claims that he found Gavren’s athame in his office where his scrolls went missing. Gavren urges his apprentices to prove his innocence.

After some searching, the players find out that the riftmages from the previous session, Brasken and Eryss, are missing from their cells with no sign of forced exit or entry. The guard on duty blames the new guy who was on watch last night.

Eventually, after piecing things together, the party finds their culprit when he strikes at them. He is easily taken care of and taken into custody.

Session 1

In the first session, our PCs are introduced to their riftmage master, Gavren, a gentle hearted but stern and wise diviner. They are at the Gurinth Isles, specifically staying at the eastern isle where the university is. Gavren sends his new students off on their first quest — to acquire void crystal big enough to sculpt their athames out of. But first the adventurers meet the timid alchemist Kiel, who treats them all to potions of cure light wounds and lesser restoration (CL 5).

With the aid of a university student, Matir, the PCs travel to the isle of Nexus, where the veil between the physical plane and the void is thin. It is a densely forested island of considerable size. However, it is not difficult for the PCs to follow the river upstream to the mouth of the cave.

After encountering a shy but friendly baby dragon at the mouth of the cavern, the PCs venture inside. Wielding magical light (because in this world, who doesn’t?) they make their way deeper into the earth. Along the way they fight a venomous snake and a water elemental. Just as they nearly reach the crystal quarry, two other riftmages emerge, Brasken and Eryss.

When pressed for information, Brasken gets agitated and nervous and admits that they were sent to spy on Gavren as he is suspected of wrongdoing. Knowing they’ve been found out, a fight ensues. Brasken gets a flurry of dagger slashes on Darius, but Verthian weaves his sorcery into the magi’s mind and forces him to take out Eryss. At this point the battle is clearly decided, so the PCs tie up the two assailants while they gather the crystal that they came for. Brasken and Eryss get taken back to Gurinth on the very small and crowded Future Sight. The enemy riftmages get put into custody and the resident Giant smith starts work on everyone’s athames.

Gavren gives the party 300 silver to be comfortable living for a while and shows them the dormitories where they will be staying.

Note: Kiel will sell the party any potion of a spell that is on the cleric or wizard spell list for half price at caster level 1, 3, or 5 upon request.